Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Godmilla Strikes #1


Headed to Tokyo Dome, the city's baseball stadium. On the way we passed this homeless guy, the first I had seen in Tokyo. I expressed surprise. I decided to give him a 500 Yen coin. He kind of looked like my recently deceased dad, except Asian. And homeless. And hairier. I was warned not to, but that made no sense. I offered the guy money and he freaked! He tried to get to his feet to perform some martial arts move on me, and having seen Jackie Chan's Drunken Master movie, I decided to take a step back. His outburst brought much attention. Not to him, but to me.

What gives? I was told: "Chances are he ran a company and it became bankrupt. To take money from you would be to dishonor himself." But laying in his own filth wearing rags is okay? "Sometimes companies find these people because they know they have skills, and will re-employ them." This gave me hope for all my ex-Vitesse friends. I also heard from someone: "I have one friend who is homeless because he does not want to pay for rent. He showers at health club and sleeps in a park and has a real job. He has a cell phone so nobody knows that he is homeless."

That must be how people save for house deposits in San Francisco.

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